Super Soldier of a Different Breed
by the DEVIL may care but I don't
Summary: Co-written with DecedentofGallifrey. SHIELD had been working on synthesizing another, more advanced form of the super-soldier serum. What if Hydra had gotten hold of one of these such soldiers while the other was taken under the director's wing? Set during The Winter Soldier. We own nothing, as usual. Consider this disclaimed. Cap/OC. Winter/OC. Now one-shot style b/c we're lazy.
1. Chapter 1

Jodie pressed her head against the wall of her "room" and felt like screaming. She wanted nothing more than to beat herself against the door until she was bloody and broken. Jodie had always been the one to be optimistic; keeping her eyes on the bright light that would be the next day. Now Jodie wasn't so sure. Everything hurt…and her back….her back. Jodie began to cry a soft and broken sound.

She felt like she was falling apart. Shield had decided, without their resident super soldier's knowledge, to try for a new type of genetically engineered soldier. Everyday Jodie was subjected to painful injections which caused even more painful reactions. The scientists seemed fairly happy with themselves when they tested her. Well…she was one of the test subjects. Another, who she had actually grown an attachment to, was named Stef. Jodie's back not only hurt…but it itched….

Jodie reached back to lightly run her fingers over the smooth expanse of skin. She froze when there was something sticking up underneath her skin…..something that _shouldn't _be there. It _**itched**_**. **Jodie found herself scratching the place with vigor. She didn't stop when she felt the warm fluid running down her back….she did, however, gasp when she found another spot exactly opposite of it. Jodie began curled into herself once she had made the spots stop itching. She didn't even mind that she was lying in a pool of her own blood.

* * *

Stef allowed herself to be dragged out of the procedure room. Seeing as how she couldn't move on her own since her limbs felt like noodles, she didn't have much choice. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her friend—experiment named Jodie—being taken back to her room with a look of severe pain on her face. She wanted to ask why she was being secreted away after the procedure was complete, why she wasn't being taken back to her old room, but she wasn't in control of her own body enough to speak.

She'd expected to be in more pain, but the men that were dragging her had stuck her with something, some drug, that seemed to be keeping the pain away. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she watched a pair of dark stripes form along her forearms and her fingernails sharpened into claws. _Wha . . . ?_

Then there was darkness.

The next thing she was aware of, Stef was being shoved into a chair across from a man with shoulder-length brown hair about the same color as her own with what looked to be a metal left arm. Icy blue eyes studied her curiously for a few moments before he said something to someone over her shoulder in what sounded like Russian.

Then Stef was being taken to a chair that looked like it belonged in a barbershop. It was leaned back with some suspicious-looking equipment around it. The men strapped her down despite the confused glances she was giving them. She was still too drugged up to get words out of her mouth.

Next thing she knew, there was agony ripping through her skull, forcing her out of consciousness again.

* * *

"Where's Stef?" Jodie demanded. There was no human interaction anymore, just the slight scrape as her food slid into her room. "Tell me!" Jodie had been going at this for days now. Sometimes she just screamed it at the room in general. Jodie jumped when she saw something huge and white in the corner of her ever improving vision. She sighed and felt the things on her back drop in response. The tests had given her some "special" features….

Like her fucking wings. Yes….she had wings….and they were fluffy and beautiful. From what she could tell she now had the image of an Angel….her looks had improved from what she could tell. Her skin _felt_ smoother…and if she was going by the color of her skin she almost had a healthy light gold glow. I mean she was still pale….painfully so….but now it looked more….pretty. She was also faster….and could hear extremely well. Like she knew there was a person still outside of the door…she could hear their soft breathing….and their heartbeat.

"You know I can hear you're still there." Jodie said in a bored voice. A small catch in their breathing….like a chuckle. "You might as well answer me."

The door opened and Jodie jumped not expecting a response. A man with skin like chocolate and an eyepatch stared at her in a dark outfit. He looked like a super villain…..he even had the long leather coat.

"Allow me to introduce myself." The man said taking a step into the room. The door slammed shut behind him. Oh, there was another person out there. She could hear them now. "I'm Nick Fury…Director of Shield." He added with emphasis. Jodie pressed her wings even tighter against her body…something she did when she was scared or nervous.

"I'm Jodie Lorence….experiment number 0002. I'm also a freaking bird." She added extending her wings behind her a little bit. "Where is Stef Matthews…experiment number 0003?" She added for clarification.

"That information is classified." Fury said with a small frown.

"And?" Jodie asked eyes narrowed. "You guys turned me into an anime character. I deserve some answers." Fury chuckled a bit at that.

"It was decided that you would make a decent Agent of Shield….but in order for you to be trained your friend had to be removed. " Fury said sitting on her small bunk.

"An Agent?" Jodie asked eyes slightly wide. "As in…..like….Hawkeye and Black Widow….and…"

"Yes." Was Fury's amused answer. "In order to fully train you one of our operatives will have to take you into their home…seeing as you do not have one." He said glancing down at his clipboard.

"You."

Fury glanced up sharply at the girl's voice. His eye wide. "What?"

"You. I choose you. Ignore the Pokémon reference, but really. If I'm going to live with anyone….it'll be you."

"Why me?" Fury asked ignoring his usual urge to just shut her down.

"Go big or go home." Jodie shrugged .

Fury couldn't help himself. He smiled. And then drew in a deep breath surprised at what he was about to say. "Deal. You become an Agent and study underneath myself and one of my best agents. You can call my home yours." He added.

"Is it the Black Widow?" Jodie asked eyes wide. Fury laughed at the awe in her eyes.

"No…his name is Agent Coulson."

* * *

"You are an asset to Hydra. You will now be known as the Summer Soldier or Shade for short. You have pyrokinesis and catlike traits. Your partner is the Winter Soldier. No one outside of him and your mission matters."

The mantra repeated over and over in her head as she was pushed into what looked to be a metal coffin, _cryolocker_, her mind provided. She'd endured months of rigorous training with the man that shared the cramped space with her. The Winter Soldier. They'd been ordered to share a bed since the beginning, so this wasn't too much of a shock.

"_Hold onto me,_" he ordered in Russian. They often shifted languages within conversations to ensure that she was completely fluent.

Without question, she did as he instructed. They were then lying chest-to-chest with her face in the crook of his neck and her arm around his torso while his metal arm was secured around her lower back when the world went cold and dark.

Over the next five years, the pair are taken out of deep freeze several times for only a few days each mission. They worked in perfect unison together, perfecting a deadly dance of blades, claws, and guns that brought down their targets. Both were rumored to be ghosts, never leaving enough of a trail to be traced to anyone for certain. The Winter Soldier was the sniper of the duo while his Summer counterpart drew out the targets when needed. Otherwise, they worked in sync to tear through bases to get needed intel, leaving no one alive to speak of them. Those cases always left burning buildings that turned everything to ash before the authorities could gather any evidence.

Part of the reason the pair were such great partners was due to the fact that, a year to the unfrozen world—about three missions for the assassins—after their initial meeting, their relationship had taken on a more . . . intimate aspect. He'd hauled her into a bruising kiss after one of their targets had been eliminated via a bullet from each of their rifles. After that, it was a steady progression into something deeper. Love.

Their masters allowed the relationship upon noticing that, after that kiss, the rest of the mission had progressed without a single flaw. They realized that their assets' new bond only enhanced their teamwork. Even when they wiped the assassins' memories after each mission, Hydra managed to leave in their feelings for one another to keep that strength in teamwork that strong.

Each other became all they knew outside of training and missions, so they clung to it. The Soldiers became fiercely protective of one another, so much that each would easily die for the other.


	2. Chapter 2

"You should put on the radio," Jodie said, kicking her heels up on the dashboard of Fury's SUV. It had been fire years and Jodie had become a weapons as lethal as Natasha Romanoff . . . maybe even more. Even her wings, which were currently being covered by a black peacoat, were weapons. When threatened or when she triggered it, the wings would shift into blades. They still looked like wings of course . . . just sharper . . . literally.

"You know damn well not to put your feet on the dash!" Fury barked, knocking at her feet. Jodie scowled slightly but kept her feet where they were. Fury sighed, but the sound was affectionate. After the five years of having the winged girl in his house, he was tempted to put her into the Avengers Initiative but found himself holding back. He didn't want to risk her, much to Jodie's annoyance, and instead kept her close and usually at home. Coulson had been the same way. Until . . . what had happened.

"You really should turn on the radio," Jodie said simply.

"After all we've learned today _that's_ what you're worried about," he grumbled, glaring at her.

"Seeing as how you're not talking about it, yeah," Jodie countered with a glare of her own. "We find out Shield has been compromised and all I get is radio silence. Real awesome," she muttered, adjusting a small necklace she had on. Coulson had gotten it for her . . . it was a little pair of wings. She, of course, had gotten her own little codename . . . from Coulson himself.

Angel.

Of course that was when the car hit them from the side. Jodie grunted with the impact and felt her wings become metal. Fury somehow got the car to keep going and, with some fanciful shooting on Jodie's part, she had taken out the fake cops that were tailing them.

"I think they know that you know," Jodie said, raising an eyebrow. "Not that they know about me . . . I'm Top Secret. They must not have accounted for me." She was already reloading her guns while she spoke. Of course, Jodie preferred to fight hand-to-hand or with blades. It was a more personal way of killing that way.

* * *

Shade rolled her eyes when the news came over her comm unit that the fake police unit had failed to take one Director Nick Fury. Her partner snickered off to her right. "_We never can count on those guys to do their damn jobs can we?_" she asked in Russian, their usual language of choice.

"_Of course not. Why do you think we were ordered here just in case?_" he asked.

Methodically, he started assembling the Hydra-issued grenade launcher. The explosive disks the gun fired would magnetize and stick to the undercarriage of a car before detonation. The plan was to get in front of Fury's vehicle to fire, then find out for sure if the man was dead.

She leaned over for a brief kiss before pulling up her uniform's hood and therefore hiding her face. They had almost identical uniforms. Leather vests—his with one long sleeve for his flesh hand—combat boots and pants with plenty of weapons holsters on their backs and waists. At some point, she'd gotten a red star tattoo on her right bicep that matched his, marking them as partners in every sense of the word.

"I love you, _soldat moy_," she whispered as she pulled on her fingerless leather gloves.

"And I love you, _zvezda moya._ Now we have a mission to complete." The Winter Soldier's eyes hardened after the declaration while he pulled on his mask and goggles. His brown hair fell loosely around his face unlike hers which was pulled into a low bun to keep it out of her face and to keep it from being singed by her fires. "His car is approaching."

"Then you know what to do," Shade said in response. She tensed in preparation for the blast that was about to rock through them as soon as he fired.

In a display of his usual perfect aim, the Winter Soldier fired the grenade that was already loaded in the gun. It attached to the underside of Fury's car exactly as planned, exploding only a moment later. Shade found herself being pushed behind her partner via his metal arm as he rotated out of the way of the car that was now sliding towards them on its front bumper. Her hood was blown off of her head by the breeze the car caused as it passed.

* * *

Jodie gasped when she saw the man pointing a large gun at them.

"Get out," Fury barked the order. Jodie already had her seatbelt off from the earlier shooting. She looked at Fury in horror.

"But—"

"Get your ass out of the _motherfucking car!_" he screamed at her. She instantly pulled her coat off and kicked the passenger side window out. There was a small clinking sound on the underside of the car that made Jodie's eyes go wide. "Now, Angel!" Her body followed the ordered before her mind could object. She pushed out of the window just as the explosion hit. Jodie flared her wings using the hot air to steady her fall. She landed just in front of the pair who caused the car to explode. Jodie looked like some sort of fallen angel with her wings still swept out as she looked up. She froze upon recognizing the figure that was partially hidden behind the masked man.

"Stef . . ."

"_Check to see if the target is dead,_" Shade ordered in Russian. "_I will handle the girl._" Her partner nodded in acknowledgement and stalked over to rip the car's door off of its hinges. The female assassin felt a twinge of recognition at the back of her mind when the winged girl spoke, but she ignored it in favor of pulling her pistol on the other. "You are not our target. Back away or I shoot."

"Fuck that." Jodie said pulling her own gun. Her wings flexed slightly out. "Stef, what are you doing? Why are you trying to kill him?" Jodie needed to figure out how to get to Fury quickly. She pulled a second weapon. "Hey, _asshole_!" She shouted. She could see each of them easily...super soldier vision made her see a lot more and further than a normal person would. "Get away from my car."

_"Shade, he isn't there,_" her partner informed her, eyes firmly locked onto the winged girl. "_He somehow managed to get out of the car where I could not see._"

Her eyes darted over to him before returning to the girl's. _"Then we will have to find another way . . . This girl is obviously connected to him. She can likely lead us to him._"

He nodded in agreement. The Winter assassin walked confidently over to his partner's side, eyes never leaving the threat.

When Jodie realized that Fury had gone she could help but grin. She rolled her shoulders looking extremely excited.

"I won't." Jodie said replying to Stef's statement. She had picked up a little Russian. It seemed she could learn anything _extremely_ fast. Like she could learn languages in mere months. "Ever wonder what your last name was?" She asked completely at ease with a gun pointed at her. "Or who you knew before you became...this." She said her eyes raking over the two of them. "Or how you became like that? Or if there was anyone else who was genetically engineered with animal traits?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Weapons don't have last names," Shade stated bluntly, grip on the gun flexing. "I am an asset, that is all." She noted the tensing of her partner's figure as she said that. She knew she was more than that to him, but that wasn't for this girl to know.

"Your last name was Matthews." Jodie said softly. "And you might not remember me, but I remember you. I know for a fact you aren't just a weapon...but I can't deal with that right now." Quite suddenly Jodie ran at a full sprint at Fury's car. In an instant she jumped up onto its burning remains and threw herself into the air.

"_We need to follow her on foot. She may not know it, but she will lead us to the target._" Shade muttered, tracing the flying girl's path with her feline-sharp eyesight. _"That, and the real authorities are going to be here soon to investigate this._"

Her partner squeezed her hand with his flesh one briefly before pulling her behind him in a swift sprint to keep up with their airborne target.

Jodie glanced back and saw the couple was following her. She sighed and then dove suddenly onto the top of a building. She landed on the roof with a small skid. She couldn't let them follow her to where she knew Fury would be waiting. He had always said if they ever got separated to meet at the nearest Starbucks or coffee shop. The location was Jodie's idea. She liked coffee. Jodie grinned knowing she had cut the pair from seeing her for the moment.

Shade let out a string of curses in various languages when their target suddenly dived out of view. Her partner simply sighed and removed his mask and goggles.

"Relax, _zvezda moya_. This entire city is covered by surveillance cameras. It won't be too hard to locate her like that; it'll just be slightly more annoying."

She grumbled in annoyance. "I know, but you know how much I hate this kind of work, Win."

He chuckled, breaking his usual stoic facade. Shade found herself pulled into a brief kiss. "We have work to get done."

That was met with an eye roll and a fond smile before the couple practically disappeared out of the alley they'd been standing in.


	3. Chapter 3

Jodie pretty much free-ran her way to the ground. She frowned, knowing she would need something to cover her wings. She glanced around and grabbed the nearest guy with a jacket. She didn't really look at him before she pressed a kiss to his lips. She'd actually used this ploy before . . . It was sad how easily it worked sometimes. When she kissed the man harder, she pulled lightly on his jacket as if in passion. Once she got it down slightly, she took off, ripping the jacket off of the man and tugging it onto her own shoulders in an instant.

Jodie could run faster than anyone on record. It was because she was actually extremely light. Her bones were stronger than the average human's but were much lighter. It had happened over a period of time, and it made it easier for the girl to fly. Her light weight actually threw people off most of the time when they tried to pick her up. Most of her weight was actually due to muscles.

She darted into the crowd before the man knew what hit him. Jodie smiled, happy that she could hide her wings. She quickly located the nearest coffee shop and bought some, sitting in the back corner.

Jodie kept her head low and sipped on her coffee, frowning to herself. The explosion had been pretty severe. Jodie took a drink, this time ignoring the pain the hot liquid brought to her mouth. Fury got out . . . but if he had been mortally wounded . . . what would she do? She shut the pain down and began to analyze the situation.

Shield was without a doubt compromised, and who or whatever compromised it was now sending people after Fury. They did not consider her a target, which meant that Fury had made her a more classified subject than he had let on. She could use that to her advantage . . . if Fury did not return . . .

The cooler coffee tasted bitter now.

. . . If Fury didn't return she should track those who . . . killed him. She would go after them with everything she had in her arsenal and once they were disposed of she would figure out who had compromised Shield, and she would kill them too.

"Scoot." The gruff order caused Jodie to glance up and feel relief wash through her. Fury, looking worse for wear, sat next to her with a small groan. "Alright, Angel. We're going to have to move soon," he added, grabbing her cup and taking a sip. He frowned as he put it back down. "We're not safe anymore. We can trust no one . . . well . . . There is one man," he said looking her in the eyes. "I'm going to need your help to get into his apartment," he informed her as he stood. Jodie rose with him and blinked in surprise when he shoved her peacoat into her hands. Other than smelling like smoke, it was completely fine. She nodded in one quick, sharp motion. Fury didn't say he loved people in the normal way, but this was one way.

The apartment wasn't too hard to break into . . . especially when the person who breaks in has wings and the windows were easy to pick open. Jodie glanced around the rather sparse apartment and tucked herself into a corner of the living room while Fury put himself just to the side of the door. He put a record on and the two listened in silence for a while.

"You have to trust this man completely, Angel," Fury said after a while. Jodie glanced up and frowned. Fury had always told her to trust no one. "He's one of the few people who will understand you," he explained. Jodie nodded, drawing her knees up to her chest to hug them. Beneath _her_ coat, her wings pressed lightly to her back. There was the sound of a door slowly opening and a figure slowly and carefully made his way into the living room. Fury turned on a light and the man jumped. Jodie bit back a gasp. It was _him._ Steve Rogers, experiment 0001, the super-soldier . . . Captain America.

"Fury?" His voice was handsome but very confused at the moment. "What happened?"

Fury gave Cap a quick run-down of what happened and then he hesitated and looked Rogers in the eyes with a look that could melt steel. "Rogers . . . I need you to do me two favors. One is to keep this safe," the former Shield director handed over a flash drive. "Second . . . is to keep _her_ safe."

"Her?" Rogers asked confused once more. Jodie mentally sighed and stood up from her little corner. Rogers turned towards her sharply. She knew what he saw. A girl of about 21 with pale flawless skin that seemed to slightly glow. Golden eyes rimmed with thick black lashes and a mane of red hair that swept down and around her shoulders watching him as warily as he was watching her. She was shorter for sure….about 5'6 with a black peacoat covering her from her neck down to her knees.

"What I am about to reveal to you is top secret. Level 9 clearance." Fury sighed. Cap was staring at the girl eyes wide. "This is Angel. She's an Agent of shield and one of the only ones we can trust. She is also…." Fury frowned.

"Like you." Jodie said standing a bit straighter and staring the very handsome man in the eyes. "I am the second successful super-soldier experiment….though I've had a few….adjustments."

Rogers was slowly moving towards the girl eyes wide. She sighed and tugged her coat off to have it puddle in the floor. She stretched her wings out a bit and Rogers froze where he stood. Jodie hated this part….the part where they looked at you like you were some sort of creature. Jodie's wings instantly tightened to her back where they hid out of sight.

"It's quite rude to stare." Jodie mumbled a blush beginning to grace her cheeks. Rogers blinked and turned slightly to Fury.

"You tried to replicate me?" There was an anger in his tone.

"No." Fury's voice was tired but resolute. "We tried to create a better version of you. Stronger, Faster, with more….assets." Fury said looking to Jodie as well. She began to hug herself but her wings relaxed the smallest bit creating the edges of them to be seen framing her torso. She had never felt quite so monstrous as right now.

"Show him what they do." Fury's voice was quiet but firm. Jodie dropped her gaze to the floor but obediently spread her wings out a little further. Her actual wingspan was quite large and from where she was standing she would hit the walls before she extended fully. She flicked that internal switch and stared at her feet. She knew what Rogers would see. Her wings which were beautiful and white fluffy things would grow a dull-ish grey. She twitched her wings and the sound of metal sliding across metal was heard throughout the room. She heard Rogers' small intake of breath, his heart speed up. She jerked her wings closed and let them relax into their natural fluffy form.

"She has to be protected." Fury's voice was subzero. Jodie looked up to see his expression but froze when she caught the eyes of Captain America. He had moved closer without her knowledge and was now only about a foot from her.

"You had to take the same serum as me." His voice was soft. Jodie narrowed her eyes but nodded. "Same way?" Another nod.

"And then the second time," her voice matched his, "to get these and to enhance speed, sight, smell, and hearing."

"The first enhances everything….brings out who you really are." He said looking her over as if trying to judge her character.

"Yeah...it does. It made you even more loyal and self-sacrificing. I've heard about you all my life." She said softly. "And to be fair….you hadn't been woken up when they began testing on me."

"What about your life before all of this?" He asked his body turning slightly to Fury but his eyes staying on hers.

Jodie laughed and shook her head. "I didn't really have one. After the tests Fury took me in….and so did Coulson." Rogers flinched like he had been slapped. "They've basically been raising me for five years….well….until recently. Phil had cards of you, ya know." Jodie said glancing at her hands. "He used to teach me card games with them."

"Cap….you've gotta keep her safe." The words were almost pleading….a tone neither of the super-soldiers had heard before.

"I will." Rogers said eyes wide.

"Good now-"

Gunshots. Fury jerked in his chair and Jodie found herself screaming. She was beside him in an instant her wings thrown out and metal creating a shield for him. She couldn't help the tears that were falling, but Fury's heart….she couldn't hear it. Jodie turned and without thought ran towards the window. She would _kill_ who did this.

* * *

It'd taken several hours to sneak in and hack into the city's camera mainframe, but overall it didn't prove too much of a challenge. They could've easy ordered some of the lower-rank agents to do it for them except for the fact that they only trusted their masters and themselves to get the information. Early that night, they found themselves on a rooftop across the street from one Captain America's apartment with the male assassin peering through the scope of his rifle.

"_I've got him,_" the Winter Soldier muttered, not moving his head up from where he was aiming his rifle.

"_I told you she would lead us right to him._" Shade said smugly, leaning against the wall at the edge of the roof next to him.

He chuckled. "_And I told you that it wouldn't be too difficult to track her through the city's surveillance systems. It only took a few extra hours._" Despite the mask he was wearing, she could almost see the smirk she knew he was wearing.

"_Yeah, yeah. Rub it in, Winter,_" Shade snorted. "_Hurry up and take the shot so we can get this done._"

Another low snicker rose up from his throat right before he fired two shots through the window of the good Captain's apartment. Shade could easily hear slight chaos immediately coming from the apartment.

"_Let's go!_" he ordered, throwing his gun across his back and taking off across the roofs.

Shade's feline grace allowed her to quickly end up running beside him. Due to their enhanced genetics, it was quite easy to make the large jumps between rooftops when others would need ropes to swing on or something just as ridiculous. Her ears twitched when she caught the sounds of someone following them.

Rogers was right behind Jodie, she broke through the window and he began to chase after the man who had shot Fury. Jodie quickly and quietly flew after them. After a rather short chase Jodie skidded to a stop on a roof which the masked man, Rogers, and Stef all ended up on. Rogers threw his shield and the man held up a metal arm to catch it. The entire scene seemed to stumble to a halt.

"Stef." Jodie's voice breathed out looking at the woman. "Stef, please."

"I'm not who you think I am." Shade stated coldly, drawing her pistol.

Her partner gave no verbal comment but their years together allowed her to understand the unsaid cue. The instant the Winter Soldier hurled the shield back at the Captain, she fired a shot at the winged girl.

The shot was a mere foot from Jodie's head, and she felt her heart break at the action. Jodie pulled on her deepest and oldest reserves and her powers whipped out to stop the bullet just as it was a centimeter from her skin. The bullet hung in mid-air, but Jodie paid it no mind her eyes were locked on Stef.

"Yes you are." She whispered holding back tears. The bullet was still slowly rotating in the air above her and she glanced at Stef's partner. The bullet followed her eye motion quick as a whip.

"No!" Shade shouted, using her enhanced feline speed to swing in front of the bullet and pushing him out of the way. Somehow, she managed to maneuver so the projectile only clipped her shoulder.

During this, it hadn't escaped her notice how Rogers seemed to be in a state of extreme panic when she'd fired at the girl. She filed it away as useful information for later.

Jodie pulled her two guns on the pair with lightning speed her wings changing to metal behind her. She let them out to their actual extent. Rogers' shield streaked to her like a loyal companion. Jodie's eyes had gone into a dead almost white noise look. She looked as if she could and would kill the two before her because of what happened.

Shade's body was on autopilot as her partner barked an order in Russian. Without thinking, she threw up her good arm to create a wall of fire as a shield. The male assassin grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her off the roof with him. It didn't even register to her how they landed safely and disappeared into the crowd that was walking along the street below until they'd stopped in an abandoned building a few blocks away.

When the wall of fire appeared Jodie spun her wings facing the heat. She had automatically moved to save Rogers. When she felt the heat recede she twisted to see that the pair were gone. She dropped to her knees wings wilting behind her. She couldn't think. Fury dead...Coulson dead...Stef...Stef was not Stef any longer. Her entire world was ripped away in one moment and she felt a strange pain where the bullet would have hit. It felt like betrayal. Jodie lost her touch on her surroundings her body going into autopilot.

Rogers walked over to the girl, yet when he got too close the girl was automatically pointing her gun at him already pulling the trigger. He grabbed her arm as she did so and pushed the shot to the side of his face. He slammed her arm and she dropped the gun, just as she swung the other level with his face. A kick to her legs caused her to drop. Her gun skittered away and she rolled to the side already up and moving towards his. Rogers grabbed his shield and brought it up just as her hand came down. Jodie grunted as the blow broke some of her fingers. The target was saying something….yelling it. She didn't care. She twisted using her wings as blades, they scraped against the shield and resistance made Jodie feel slightly sick. She ignored that feeling and pulled her daggers. After fighting for a full minute Rogers growled in frustration and threw his shield aside. Jodie blinked in shock as the target stood defenseless. She threw a blow, and he did not move. She reigned the blow in just before it made contact with his very handsome face.

"Angel….stop." His voice was calm and his arms were reaching for hers. She wanted nothing more than to fight more…but she let him lower her arms. Her wings slowly bled back into the fluffy white things they usually were and Jodie breathed heavily tears beginning to brim. "Everything's going to be fine Angel….I've got you." He said his hands going to her shoulders.

"That's not my name."

"What?"

"I have a name you know." Jodie said on the edge of tears. She strained against them with everything she had. "It'd be like me calling you Captain America instead of Rogers." She continued.

"What's your name then?" Rogers asked eyeing the girl worriedly.

She simply shook her head an extremely sad and dark look passing over her features. She seemed to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. No one would ever know her by her real name, she decided, it would be better that way. She knew her only information in shield referred to her by Angel….not her real name.

"Angel….Angel is fine. " She said shrugging out of his grip. They had to get back to Fury….they had to tell Shield otherwise they would think they knew something. "We have business to tend to."

* * *

Authors' Note: Yo, reviews motivate us to post new chapters xp. Tell us whatcha think and any ideas you might have. Can't guarantee said ideas would be used, but it always helps to have feedback!


	4. Chapter 4

"What were you thinking?!" the Winter Soldier demanded, whipping around to face his Summer counterpart.

Shade blinked, shaking herself out of the autopilot that'd taken over her. "What?" she asked groggily as if she was waking up from cryostasis.

"Why did you jump in front of that bullet? I would have been fine; you _know_ that." He ripped the mask off to reveal panicked, scruffy features. His blue eyes were wide when he gently took her wounded left arm in his hand to inspect the injury.

"I couldn't just let you get hurt, Win," she muttered. She found that she couldn't meet those eyes and face the worry there, so she looked down.

Those handsome features softened a bit at that. He carefully wrapped the wound in a bandage pulled from his belt-first-aid kit. "And you think I like seeing you get hurt?"

"No, but . . ."

"Exactly. Anyway, it doesn't look like you're going to need stitches or anything, so we'll be fine to report back to our Masters immediately. I love you, zvezda moya, but you just _can't_ do that to me again. I don't want to go back to not feeling anything without you."

She nodded. "I know. I promise, I won't do it again. However, I will always try to stop you from getting hurt."

"As will I," he vowed, kissing her briefly. "I made an observation about that girl."

"As I did about the Captain, but you go first."

"I think she was part of the same program you were since she's got those mental powers _and_ the wings of a bird."

Shade game a noise of agreement. "We will have to report that . . . I think Rogers is attracted to the girl . . . His reaction was abnormally strong."

"That, we will have to wait to report until we know for sure."

"I agree . . . Come on, we've waited too long as it is. They'll be angry if we take much longer."

"They can deal with a slight wait since I was preventing you from dying of blood loss or something," he smirked.

A laugh escaped her as her partner leaned in for a brief kiss. "_Always protecting the Assets,_" she muttered before they took off back into the street to report back to base.


	5. Chapter 5

Jodie watched in silent horror as the Doctors labored over Fury. She clenched her hands until her nails cut into the skin. Jodie didn't notice when a new person joined them. She only pushed back tears as the Doctors called and noted his death. Her chest hurt, like her heart was in agony, if such a thing was possible. She found herself spiraling further into herself. She had known he was horribly wounded, but the fact that he was actually dead made her feel like there was no strength left in her body. Somehow she remained standing, face blank, as she stared at the body on the operating table. She wondered if Coulson had seemed so vulnerable in his death. If his body somehow looked feeble against the black tide that was death.

"Angel." Steve's voice was gentle and she automatically turned to him the image of Fury's body seared onto her eyes. "Meet Natasha Romanoff."

Jodie looked past him to see the red-head giving her a strange look. She automatically tucked her wings tighter against her body.

"Nice to meet you, agent black-widow." She said her voice a strange an empty thing that spoke when she felt no real need to say anything to the woman. She didn't really feel the need to say anything to anyone.

"What was he doing in your apartment?" Natasha asked eyes locking on Steve.

"I don't know." He answered simply. She then glanced to Jodie.

"What about you? Do you know anything?"

"Director Fury was simply sending me orders when he was attacked." Jodie said letting a little bit of sadness and concern leak into her features. "I went with the first responders to make sure he was okay...I never thought..." Her voice suddenly choked off and she let a few tears leak out of her eyes. She hated that she could put on a personality so easily. "I always looked up to him." She said truthfully. Natasha nodded slightly looking vaguely concerned with the crying girl. "I'm...I'm fine...I've just never seen someone...never seen someone..." She let a small sob escape. These were easy to produce she had been holding them back until now.

"Your name is Angel?" Natasha asked gently.

"Yes...my parents were not thoughtful people when it came to naming. All of the jokes.." She said sounding like she was trying, and failing, to lighten up.

"Perhaps you should head home for the day." Natasha gently suggested. "You're obviously not prepared to work."

Jodie nodded and dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "You're right...I'll call Agent Hill to let her know." She began to walk down the hall in the direction of the exit. She made it outside and sat on one of the stone benches outside of the hospital burying her head in her hands. There were no tears, though they were waiting for her control to slip up. She couldn't kill the ones who did this despite her want to. It was Stef...and Stef was all she had left, memory of her or not. Jodie breathed in, a slow inhale that she felt down to her toes. The way Stef had jumped in front of the bullet...

It was obvious that her partner was much more to her than that. Why risk her own life just to save his unless she...unless she loved him.

"Fuck me." Jodie growled. She felt the slight flick that meant her wings had changed into blades. She grit her teeth. If Stef loved that man ...it meant she couldn't carry out her revenge on him. If Stef loved him...she wouldn't take him away. She loved Stef too much to do something so obviously selfish. Jodie wanted to scream...instead she tensed up her body. She tensed up to the point of pain and then she began relaxing her body from the feet up. Making sure each muscle was fully relaxed before moving to the next.


	6. Chapter 6

"Agent Rumlow is tracking them since they managed to escape the pair of you with the information we were trying to stop Fury from spreading," Pierce was saying, looking rather annoyed that they'd failed to locate the jump drive. "The two of you will stay here until he's located them. Then you are ordered to take out Captain Rogers and Natasha Romanoff and bring in this girl with wings you described."

"Yes, sir," they chorused obediently. Submissively, they both kept their eyes on the ground until their Master left the room.

They'd been taken to the room they'd recovered from cryostasis in. That frozen sleep always took a few hours of rest to recover completely. The room was furnished with a single, full-sized bed, a floor lamp, and a single chair with a door that led to a tiny bathroom that housed a single-person shower, a toilet, and a sink.

The first time Shade had suffered the Thaw, as they called it, she'd immediately had to run to the toilet and proceeded to dry heave for a solid hour. Her partner had been there, much to her surprise, to hold her hair out of her face as the pathetic contents of her stomach resurfaced violently. Hydra had allowed her to keep the memory as part of their relationship's development, making their love stronger through an uncompromising memory.

"So, what are we going to do to pass the time, zvezda moya?" the Winter Soldier inquired. He was automatically pulling her into his arms and smiling down at her. "This is a rare opportunity for us."

"Oh, I could probably think of a thing or two we could do . . ." she grinned. Her hands were already unbuttoning the front of his vest.

Once the couple's libidos were sated, Shade found herself straddling her partner/lover's hips and lying on his chest. She broke the lazy kiss they'd been sharing as they wound down by smiling at him. His returning smile made her heart rate rise for a moment. It was rare that she was graced with that relaxed, easy smile.

"What?" he asked, voice gravelly from their activities.

"Nothing," she replied, shaking her head with her chin still on his chest. "I just love you."

"Because that's the definition of nothing" he teased. Her ear twitched at the faint whirring of the gears in his mechanical arm as he moved it to cup her face. The cool metal against her warm skin caused a shiver to run down her spine. "I love you, too. What's wrong?"

A sigh escaped her; she should've known that he'd notice something was bothering her. "That woman from the roof . . . she thinks she knows me."

"How could she know you? We've never seen her before this mission."

And they hadn't seen her, not that they could remember. Neither knew they had a life before each other or Hydra. Between the memory wipes and their programming to forget who they were originally, neither assassin was aware that they'd had people that knew them before. To them, there was no before.

"I don't know, but . . . she felt familiar," Shade muttered, eyes diverting to watch her hand trace his shoulder where metal met flesh in scarred tissue.

"I know how you feel," the Winter Soldier informed her quietly. "That man . . . Captain Rogers . . . it felt like I knew him."

"What is happening, Win? It was never like this before . . . as far as I can remember."

"I don't know, but whatever happens we'll get through it _together,_" he promised, pulling her so her forehead was resting against his.

Again, she found herself nodding. So they stayed like that, resting against one another with Shade lying on top of him. It'd been a while since they could recall having time like this to just be together. They had to enjoy it while it lasted since everything else in their lives was emotionless and bloody.

* * *

A few hours later, they were redressing in their uniforms at the news that their targets had evaded Rumlow and were now driving across a bridge with another Hydra agent. They were to be in pursuit with a team Pierce had set up in five minutes. Thankfully, they'd been dressing quickly in these exact uniforms for years, so it was an easy feat to get dressed and sprint down to the garage in the set time frame.


	7. Chapter 7

Shade sighed heavily to herself as she leaned against the back wall of the truck's cab with her arms crossed. She was stuck sitting with the prisoners and some low-rank Hydra agent on a babysitting run to ensure that there would be no escape attempts while her partner was called back to base. Unhappiness coursed through her upon remembering the moment they got the order to capture instead of kill and that the Winter Soldier was to return immediately upon apprehension. They'd never been ordered apart on a mission as far as she could remember. They were always together in order to make use of their perfect teamwork.

The Summer Soldier rolled her eyes while the prisoners attempted to stop the bleeding from Romanoff's shoulder wound. _It would be easier just to cauterize it and be done with it._

She kept her hood up during the ride in an attempt to hide the displeasure and uneasiness she knew to be dancing across her face. The separation from her partner was causing her to feel antsy with the feeling that something was going to happen to him.

Abrupt silence throughout the back of the truck brought her out of her thoughts. Before she could glance around to check what was going on, the butt of a rifle was slammed into her face, bringing darkness to her mind and vision.

Jodie instantly created a telekinetic shield around her three friends eyes narrowed at the Hydra agent who just knocked out Ste-Shade. The agent pulled off their helmet and a familiar face smiled back at them.

"Maria!" Jodie couldn't help the whisper that escaped her.

"It's nice to see you Angel." She said smiling at the winged girl. Maria was one of the few people who had actually seen her before Fury's death. Fury had made her take an oath never to tell a soul about Jodie. Maria didn't know her real name either. The only one who might have known her real name was the woman who was now knocked out cold, and even then she didn't seem to remember her.

"You've met Angel?" Natasha asked, eyes wide.

"One of the precious few." She said eyes somehow troubled. "You think you can get us out of here?" She asked Jodie a strange tool in her hands. "Or should I?"

Jodie shrugged slightly and all of the handcuffs that held her friends broke loose. Sam looked at her with wide, questioning eyes. "It wouldn't have made a difference with Stef in the car." She explained stretching a bit. Her muscles protested...quite a bit. "She could have made this entire car go up in flames should we have tried to run. And yeah...I can get us out. But I'm not going without her." She said glancing to her friend.

"Why do you keep trying to save her?" Sam asked seriously. They all knew it would be a burden to carry the girl along with them...especially when she woke.

Jodie glanced down. She had never given her reason before. No one in the car knew why she was so fixated on the girl. "Her name is Estefani Matthews...I'll leave out her middle name because she hates it." Jodie said a small sad smile passing over her face. "My parents were agents in Shield...not that I knew at the time. When I was 12...my parents died. Instead of going into foster care or something along those lines I was taken into Shield. They tested my blood...my genes. They found out that I was a match and a very likely test subject for the super-soldier serum new and improved. Stef was too. We were placed together and were taught by Shield. She was all I had...then when we turned about 16 they began the tests. Two separate tests with two different outcomes. Fury heard of me...I'm pretty sure he watched us a lot when I was little...he chose me as a candidate to be in the Avengers Initiative. In order to do so he said on the official records that I died. Hydra took Stef from the moment the tests ended. They took the only person I had...I can't...I won't leave her to this fate if I can. Even if she hates me. If she doesn't remember me...she deserves so much more from life than this. And if I have to take down and entire corporation in order to give her the life she deserves...so be it."

It was the most any of them had ever heard her speak.

Steve gave her a small, reassuring smile as he picked the Hydra assassin up. "I know how you feel, Angel. We're going to save her just like we're going to save Bucky."

Jodie nodded and glanced to the floor. A neatly cut circle floated up from the floor and was sent to lean against the back of the car. "There. Now I can create a shield for you, but you'll have to jump pretty quickly and roll out of the way of traffic. I can only maintain it for a short period of time if we're all going at different times. I'll go last of course." Jodie said seeming to steel herself for what was about to happen. "Who's first?"

Maria waved a hand. "I know where we're going, so I'll lead the way."

Jodie closed her eyes at this point. As each person jumped out she concentrated fully on them, keeping them from any scrapes or even bruises as she helped roll them away from cars. When it was finally her turn she stepped through and rolled off to the side. They were all scattered further apart than she would have liked but she ignored it and jogged to her friends.

"That was...incredible." Sam said staring at her. "You saved me from being hit by a car. I could feel it touching my skin and saving me. I could feel it when you left." He was staring at her with very wide eyes. Jodie simply shrugged and watched the others waiting for instructions.

Maria quickly found a car and hotwired it. They drove to an undisclosed location in silence. Jodie kept a mental shield around Stef just in case she woke up and decided fire was the best option. Maria walked them into a stone structure and Jodie froze when she saw a familiar form laying on a hospital bed. She felt rooted to the spot.

"Angel?" Fury's voice was soft, and Jodie felt herself hit the ground. Everything was irrelevant except the form on the bed.

"Nick?" Her voice was tearful. Natasha had already moved to his side, but Jodie simply sat staring at her hands. They spoke quietly, Fury giving the girl time to cope. "You...you _died_." Jodie said after a while. She stood quicker than even Steve could have. She was by his side in a blur. "You...you let me think that you _died_. I _mourned you!_" There was anger now. "You were all I had...and you just let me think you died."

"I had to in order-"

"I don't _care. _You could have told me." The objects in the room began to shake. "You were all I had! I didn't even have Stef...Coulson died and you let me _believe_ that you were _dead_! I was so alone..." She grit her teeth as the shaking in the room increased.

"Angel..." Fury somehow sounded distressed even though his voice was calm and commanding.

"Don't." Jodie said taking a step back. "I shouldn't have chosen you," was all she said before she walked away. Where she walked the ground was beginning to crack. Jodie had to get away before she brought the building down. She made it outside and stood frozen. She wanted nothing more than to make huge gashes in the earth...her power was more than willing. The grass around her was in a flurry of her energies. She looked like she stood in the middle of an invisible tornado eyes closed as she fought herself.


End file.
